Pureblood
by RHGroeninga
Summary: It's Harry's third year. What happens when an acient Weasley token surfaces, and all the Weasleys start acting just as pureblood as they are? Pureblood/Dark-Weasleys
1. Chapter 1

As she had requested, Helen Spinner came at the end of the lesson to Professor Sprout, who was her teacher as well as head of her house. The brooch was still in her pocket, where she had kept it since she picked it up from her dressing table this morning. Her hand slid towards it, and her fingers closed around the cold metal as she approached Sprout's desk.

"Ah, Miss Spinner, you wished to talk to me about something." She took a seat and gave the nervous first year a wholehearted smile.

Spinner casted her eyes down and fidgeted in her pocket. "Er… yes, professor. Actually, I wanted to show you this." In one quick movement, she took the pin out of her pocket and directly handed it to Sprout.

She looked at it. It was a simple, yet elaborate little thing, made of gold and decorated with one single marten around the butt, its head pointed towards the sharp end of the pin and its mouth opened wide, showing its miniature golden teeth crafted with great skill and precision. Although, it might not be a marten, it could just as well be an otter or weasel instead. Plants were her speciality, not animals. Its eyes were laid in with scarlet gemstones.

As Sprout studied the brooch, Spinner informed her of anything she knew. "It was found by one of my ancestors, in early nineteenth century. He was a lawyer in the Muggle world, prosperous, and with a weak spot for ancient objects. According to the family story, he found it on one of his many strolls in the countryside. He took it home and studied it, but he couldn't find anything except that it must be very old and well-preserved. For generations we've tried to figure it out, we've consulted historians all over Britain, but no Muggle could tell us anything. So when we discovered that I was a witch, we thought it may be a wizard object. What do you think, professor?"

"It might very well be, but I can't tell you anything about its powers or whose it might have been. Could I keep it for a while, so I can show the other professors? Professor Binns might have an idea, or professor Lupin…"

"Sure!" Spinner smiled a lovely little girl's smile to the nice teacher, grateful for the help she offered. "As long as I get it back."

"That won't be a problem, sweetheart. You'll get it back as soon as we've figured it out. Now, off you go, your friends are certainly waiting."

Spinner grinned one more time before skidding off. Sprout sighed, she always loved the first years, and especially little Hufflepuf girls like Spinner. They really were her weak spot.

She glanced at the brooch in her hand. With what Spinner had said, it was almost definitely a wizard object. Only without apparent magical powers, it had been in a Muggle family unnoticed for ages. She decided to first ask professor Lupin, the new Defence against the Dark Arts teacher, to check the object on any malevolent spells. Because if the brooch had been in contact with Dark Magic, they better found out before it was too late…

* * *

He would never think of Percy. Frankly, when Remus Lupin discovered the brooch he'd put on his desk had disappeared, his first suspicion laid with the Slytherins. If any student would recognize such object and be cunning enough to steal it, it would be a Slytherin.

On the other hand… Immediately thereafter, he thought of the Weasley twins. He'd heard enough stories of McGonagall to conclude that they would do anything for a laugh, and if she could be believed, they were even worse pranksters than he himself had been during his Hogwarts years. Which was quite impressive.

But never, never – unless he would hear a confession of the Head Boy himself – he would have suspected their older brother, Percy Weasley. That guy shuddered at even the slightest mention of mischief, rules and order were his livelines. The very idea of _stealing_, was incomprehensible to him, and yet he'd stolen the brooch, and didn't even feel the teeniest bit guilty of it.

No one knew yet, of course, that it was him. He neither was worried that anyone would know, for if they would ask him about his deeds, he would rightfully point out that it was his. As it was. As soon as he saw it, he knew the pin belonged to the Weasley family, and the Weasley family solely. He had never seen it, nor heard of it before, but he had recognized it as theirs, and taken it swiftly when they left the classroom. He had taken their heritage back.


	2. Chapter 2

"Wicked!" the twins said in unison. Harry looked up in surprise. After the loud exclamation, the three red-heads proceeded their business in hushed tones.

Seeing Fred and George confidentially muttering and plotting, was nothing out of the ordinary. But seeing Fred and George confidentially muttering and plotting with _Percy_, was the world going bonkers. In fact, it was even worse than that, as Percy seemed to lead their conversation. Harry just couldn't believe his eyes. Was Percy planning a prank, _Percy_!?

"Ron, Ginny! Get off your lazy bums and come over here!" Ron looked at his eyes questioningly. Hermione rolled her eyes and went back to her reading. Harry shrugged.

He and Ron rose from their place near the fire and went over to Ron's brothers, Ginny following their track. George urged them to come nearer and Fred showed them a golden brooch.

"Woah!" Ron's mouth fell open as he picked the object out of the twin's hands and eyed it more closely. Ginny pulled at his sleeve roughly, so his brother would turn and let her see too, causing Harry's view to be blocked be the backs of two Weasleys. He gently tried to push them aside, wanting to know what all the fuss was about.

"Harry, leave it. It's nothing to see for you." He turned to face the twins, a confused frown forming on his face. "What do you mean: there's nothing to see for me? It seems interesting enough for your sister."

"You're not a Weasley." Fred clarified.

Oh, so it was something of their family. "Then what is it?" he asked.

"It's a brooch that Percy stole from Lupin during Defence Against the Dark Arts." The glare that George received from his older brother would have poisoned his brain and molten his skull, weren't it so thick.

"Might I strongly object to that!" He said heatedly. "You two know just as well as I do that this brooch form the cornerstone of our ancient wizarding heritage, and is the righteous belonging of the Weasley family! It's our responsibility to keep and protect it!"

Harry had expected the impish grins on the twins faces, for it was Percy, he was being pompous and above all, he was blabbering absolute nonsense.

"It may be our responsibility…"

"but you still stole it!"

"You can't steal something that already belongs to you!" he sneered in defence.

"_Did_ it belong to you?" Fred pondered, "Or did it – after so many years – belong to the finder?"

"How many times has it changed hands?" George chimed in, "How many times has it been sold, been bought, been purchased legally and rightfully?"

"How high a price did the previous owner pay, before it was stolen by a dirty, low-hearted thief?"

"_I'm not a thief!_" Percy screeched out.

The two looked at each other.

"What do you think, brother dear?"

"Personally, I believe he would have paid for it, weren't he a filthy, rotten, ugly, –"

Percy groaned.

"But why did you steal it, Percy? It's so… unlike you."

He sighed in surrender to Harry's question. "I'll pay back as _soon as I can_!" He spit that first remark to the twins, before turning back to Harry. "And as to _why_ I took it, well, that's quite hard to explain, really. I just felt I had to, I _had_ to take it, I _had_ to keep it away from the hands of strangers. The curious thing is, I've got _no_ idea why I felt that way."

He bit his lip in thought, as he watched the pin in Ginny's hands. "I even dare to say that it might be due to a spell that could be casted on it."

That was definitely not what Harry was hoping to hear. He almost couldn't believe his ears. His heart sank down in fear at the thought what this might mean for his friends, then rose in fury when he noticed that actually none of them particularly seemed to care.

"Wait, so you're saying you all may be being cursed at this very moment, without being even the slightest bit worried about it!?"

"Bloody hell, Harry, calm down! There nothing wrong with us!" Ron retorted. "This is the wizarding world! There are whole families holding themselves under curses, or they would be flying at each other's throats!"

Harry viewed his friend with wide eyes. "You can't be serious. There are people witching themselves to be able to put up with their family!?"

Ron snorted. "You've been raised by Muggles. Figures you wouldn't understand."

"Yes, I _don't_ understand!" Hermione looked up from her book. The conversation between Harry and the Weasleys had by now grown into a downright argument. "So could you _please_ inform me as to _why_ Percy stole an object he obviously knows is cursed, _why_ you're all so darned eager to get inflicted with that unknown spell and most of all _why_ we're not heading to at least Lupin, Madame Pomfrey or even Snape to get rid of this thing this very instant!?"

"_We're not returning it!_" Ginny shrieked.

"Yeah!" one of the twins cried, them both scowling at Harry. "We're going to pay whoever had it before a fair price, but the brooch is ours!"

"Harry." Hermione tried to gain Harry's attention before it got much worse, without success…

"Oh, so this is also part of the curse!? You all being so bloody unwilling to even _try_ to get help!"

"Harry!" Finally he looked at her. She was standing, fists clenched in anxiety, stare penetrating and stern.

"What's it, you're siding with them?"

Harry got no response, as Hermione stomped over and dragged Harry away from the Weasleys. "Would you please not start a fight in middle of the Common Room in the middle of the day!?"

"They're starting it! With their bloody obsessing over that –"

"Exactly!" Hermione interrupted. She sat him down beside her, out of ear-shot of the Weasleys. "Listen to yourself! You sound like an eight-year-old child, blaming others! If you would only just _think_ for a moment." Harry saw only then how worried she looked.

"What's it?" he asked, a bit more kindly this time.

"If they're really cursed, as you said, we might be in big trouble, really big trouble you can't talk yourself out anymore. If they _are_ influenced by that thing, they won't listen to your reasoning anymore, and we _don't know what that thing does_." All of her previous toughness and sternness had fallen away, the only thing left in her expression was concern, for the wizard family they both loved so much. "We_ need_ to alarm a teacher! Before…" she snorted a sob away and casted her eyes to the carpet. "think about Ginny last year…"

Harry's face tightened at the mention of the curse Ginny had fallen under only a few months ago. He still remembered that incident still far too vividly. "I know what you mean."

He then nodded curtly. "I'm going to find Professor Lupin."


	3. Chapter 3

**A brand new chapter, fresh from the press! (Hm, doesn't sound quite right in English, does it?)**

**Please, read and review! :)**

* * *

Five Weasleys sitting in a row, proud, defiant, sending hostile glances at the other side of Professor Lupin's office, where the professor himself, McGonagall, and Ron's two best friends sat. They were summoned by their Head of House, who was wearing a thunderous expression, but on the inside was more concerned than anything.

"Is it true, that you are currently in the possession of a golden brooch decorated with a single weasel?" she spoke sternly.

One of the Weasley twins smirked – she never could tell them apart. "Do you mean if we _have_ such a brooch, or has Granger here told you that our free will is being suppressed by an inmate object?"

"I think she meant both." the other answered.

"I want to know where it is now." McGonagall replied between clenched teeth.

"Not here –"

"– not telling!"

"Yes, we have it," Percy confessed, taking on his role as the responsible sibling, "and we're willing to pay for it, we're not thieves –"

"Yeah, only Percy is –"

"– he really is the black spot on the Weasley name, though –"

"– not _all_ our family is as attracted to the dark path of crime and felony as him!"

"Both of you, enough of your cheek! You wouldn't notice a serious matter if it turned into a purple ostrich and hold a knife to your throats!"

They wisely hold back their snickers.

McGonagall turned back to Percy. "Mister Weasley, Miss Granger and Mister Potter were under the impression that you and your siblings have fallen under a curse casted on the object concerned. Do you believe this is true?"

The authority-respecting Head Boy inhaled deeply to calm his nerves. Never before he had been in such trouble, or in any trouble at all. "Partially. I can promise you I would've never committed such a _dishonest act_," – he spat the words as something vulgar, shuddering in the knowledge he'd actually done such a thing – "weren't it for the magical attraction it had on me. That's why I want to express my most sincere apologies to Professor Lupin, and insist on paying back afterwards."

Never had Percy held his head so low, he practically begging for forgiveness. A small smile played around Lupin's lips. The boy was just too honest for his own good, of course he believed Percy wouldn't steal anything out of himself. Which only made this whole situation all the more frightening.

"Your apologies are accepted, Percy, we do believe in your honesty. Although it wasn't actually mine, but that's of the point." McGonagall looked at him, wondering, but he waved the subject away for another time. "What we want to ask you, though – please, listen carefully, we're not angry with you, only concerned – is why you have such an aversion to turning it back."

Percy didn't answer right-away, but took some time to consider. Though, when his silence stretched on, Remus decided to be a bit more direct in his questioning.

"Is it due to the spell?"

It still took a while before Percy snapped his mouth open. "That seems to be the only logical explanation, yes."

"_What!?_" Ron exclaimed, "What about it being an ancient, priceless object, made by _our_ ancestors by Merlin's pants!?"

"Mister Weasley!" McGonagall hissed, "Five points from Gryffindor, for –"

"Wait, how do you know the Weasleys made it?" McGonagall turned to Lupin, annoyed at the intervention, but then suddenly ashamed he'd had the sense to ask relevant questions where she was just going to berate Weasley for his language.

"I just know, apart from the fact there's a bloody _weasel_ on it."

"Probably the spell…" Lupin muttered.

"It's not –" Ron began, but Percy shushed him quickly. "Ron, I know it _feels_ like you are right, but think about it. There is no other rational way you could have known that than through magic."

Wanting to retort, but knowing his brother was right, Ron shut his mouth unwillingly.

Though, Percy had to admit, he found himself also quite unwilling to see reason and try to snap out of the curse. Again, it was likely part of the curse, but was it really that bad? It truly felt _right_ to be cursed, like he had always been supposed to be this way. And wasn't that the truth, that this was a Weasley treasure, long lost and forgotten, but always supposed to return to its family and bring them pride and glory again? A reminder from their ancestors, of the archaic Weasley ways, of what it truly _meant_ to be part of the Weasley wizarding family. Defiance surged as fire through his blood, and a fierceness he'd never experienced before overcame him. Actually, he detested the idea of getting back to who he was, he wasn't even sure whether he _could_ do it. So who were they, forcing him into this.

He raise his head high, but it was not a pompous gesture out of insecurity, not this time, instead it was a sign of truly felt pride. For once, Percy was proud of who he was.

"Still, you have no right and there is definitely no need to take this spell, _or_ the brooch, away from us. It was once _made_ by the Weasleys, meant to stay in the family, given from father to son, but it got lost in the course of the ages. Now it is back, and even though it has influenced us magically, its return has been a _good_ thing for us, something that has always been destined to happen. It has made me proud to be a Weasley, and I will _not_ let any of you take that feeling away from me. Ever."

His little speech left everyone baffled, and after a few moments, Fred and George slowly started clapping. As their cheering swelled, a genuine smirk appeared on Ron's lips, and Ginny beamed a wide grin to her studious brother. Never before he'd stood up against a teacher, and never before he'd felt so brave. He blushed slightly under the loving reaction of his siblings.

"Well said, Percy! We won't let them take anything away!" Fred exclaimed.

"We didn't know you had it in you, brother!" George slapped him well-meaningly on the back.

McGonagall sent Lupin a wary glance. There seemed to be no way to convince them to get help, but it had only become clearer to her that they had to do everything in their might to get the Weasleys back to normal. What would happen if they failed, she could only fear.

This, however, was useless. If they were going to save the Weasleys from themselves, it wouldn't be done by talking to them.

"For now, you're all dismissed."

The Weasleys were already leaving, but Harry and Hermione send her shocked glances. Once the red-heads were out of earshot, McGonagall explained herself.

"Whatever kind of battle this is, we are not going to win it with words. We have to get back the brooch as soon as possible, and examine it, so we know how to heal them. I'm usually not keen on conniving methods, Miss Granger, Mister Potter, but I'm afraid you'll have to be conniving and betray your friends to help them." She sighed, and looked at the loyal Gryffindors in front of her.

"Please, try to find out where they're keeping it, and bring the brooch to me or Professor Lupin. Don't be obvious about what you're doing, though, when the Weasleys discover they won't thank you for it, but they're not in their right minds. And if there are new developments in their behaviour, please inform us as soon as possible."


	4. Chapter 4

The following days, Harry and Hermione did as McGonagall had requested and secretly began looking for the brooch. Whenever the Weasley's weren't looking – which was more often that Harry would have wished – they searched their dorms, their bags, their clothes, and even asked a few times tentatively about its whereabouts, and yet, they found nothing. So after a few days of receiving suspicious glances at the breakfast table, they gave up on their fruitless search, Hermione reasoning they could just as well have sent it to the Burrow by now.

Her presumption came true when the next morning Percy got a thick, heavy envelope at the post. He looked in it, his eyes widening slightly as he found more galleons than he'd ever seen together, read a short letter that was attached and closed it again, before he stood up and walked over to a small, brown haired girl at the Hufflepuff's table.

Hermione saw Harry following him with his eyes. "Helen Spinner, most likely." she explained. "She is Muggle-born. One of her ancestors found the brooch, and brought it to their home."

Harry grinded his teeth. "So the Weasleys paid their debt. How _thoughtful _of them."

Hermione gave him a pained look. "Harry."

He took a deep breath, and tried to let his anger slide, again. He was not the only one who had lost a friend to the brooch. In fact, it was only Hermione who Ron had officially ended his friendship with. On that fateful morning the day after they'd consulted Professor Lupin, Ron had come up to them and told Hermione that he'd been stupid, that their friendship had never been supposed to happen, and that she shouldn't count on any more amicable kindnesses from him or anyone in his family. He considered her a stranger, he'd said, one he didn't wish to associate with. He told her because he wanted to be sure she understood, he wouldn't want her to be mistaken.

Hermione would have hexed Ron that day, hadn't Harry been there to stop her. Though, that might actually be the thing he'd regretted the most.

Harry looked to his right. A little further down the table sat Lee Jordan, chatting away with Alicia Spinnet. He wondered briefly who out of the twins and Lee had taken the initiative to end _their_ friendship.

* * *

"I think, _that_, was all the gold we own." Percy commented as he sat down again, still in awe of the content of the envelope.

"Which doesn't say much." Ron snorted, just before he stuffed his mouth with sausages. "Weally, id's oudrafous! How cah we be the poowest offe schoow, whah we should be uffer class!"

Ginny and Percy gave him looks of distaste, while the twins burst out laughing. "I fully stand behind your point, sir Ronniekins." said George with a mock-sophisticated accent, "It's a shame you're forced to live with these… _boors_, as you are such a gentleman! _Such_ a gentleman!"

"Your manners by far exceed those of any in this room, your elegance and style are unrivalled!"

He scowled at them and swallowed his food. "You know what I mean!" he snapped, then proceeded in a low whisper, "Even the _Mudbloods_ are richer than us, it just isn't right!"

"Ron, language." Percy berated him calmly, "we don't want people hearing us say that out in the open."

"It's true, though!" he pointed out.

"Yes, it is. _That's_ why dad's now looking for a better position at the Ministry, and Charlie will probably try to get wage increase soon. But there just isn't any more we can do right now."

"Unless you want to go illegal already." George proposed in a sinister tone.

The Head Boy looked at the twins unfazed. "I wouldn't be too surprised if you two did, actually."

His remark was met with two broad, identical grins.


End file.
